Hi! You have actually hit the core of why the old game and the new game are incompatible: the counter values were redesigned pretty much from the ground up using an algorithm based on weapon caliber, range, penetration, etc. The M-1 here is the original, and is armed with virtually the same quick-loading NATO 105mm gun standard on many of the NATO tanks at the time, and in the series (e.g. West German Leopard-1s and Danish Centurions).
During the design stage of WaW85, after rebuilding all the unit values, it turned out that the M-1 in the new game had a longer printed range than the old game (11 new versus 10 old), while the Soviet 125mm smoothbore-armed tanks went from 7 to 12. Out of the gate that made sense: the NATO 105mm had a much shorter maximum range than the Soviet 125mm smoothbore.
Why the big change in the T-72 range? Simply put: improved optics. The more I dug into why the old game had a printed range of 7 (1000 yards) - and I did have to dig - I found that the decision might have been made that the Soviet optics were ineffective beyond 1000 yards because of bad optics. (In the end I did run across that anecdotally, but never found any published metrics on exactly how bad the optics might have been).
But that appeared to have been an issue with the T-72A. Which was replaced by the T-72B - with, ironically, improved optics - well before 1985 (to my research and knowledge). And the game most assuredly is set in 1985. So, although I do not have a model number on the T-72 counters, they are T-72Bs.
Also the East Germans get T-72Bs rather than T-72Ms - now there I played the “alternate history” card and assumed the Soviets would re-arm their allies with non-export versions of the T-72.
[However, despite all this: what you will also notice once you get the game is that the Soviets have T-80s in the main game of Storming the Gap, rather than T-72s.]
So now things are turned around a bit: the Soviets have a slight printed-range advantage of one hex. But more importantly, a point blank (half-printed) range advantage of 6 versus 5. That is where the tactical rubber meets the road. Coupled with that is the M-1s platoons have 4 firepower dice to the Soviet platoon's 3, as the NATO 105 was quick to manually load, while the auto-loader on the Soviet 125mm guns was slower. More dice means more potential hits.
But no tank platoon works in a vacuum. The M-1 platoon is more than simply the range of the guns on its individual tanks, because the platoon as a group has much better Move & Fire capabilities than its Pact opponents. It can move up to half its movement and STILL fire at full strength. Up to full movement? It loses only 1 firepower die, leaving it 3. The Soviet tanks lose a firepower die if they move at all (leaving only 2) and lose two if the move more than half move (leaving only 1 die!). The tactics of an M-1 are different now, but it still has all its advantages.
In the end the M-1 platoons are really good combatants in this game - its just that there are never enough of them.
Thats where the game comes into its own. Again, no tank platoon fights in a vacuum, and what we found out in testing is that the M-1s are still powerful, in fact the most powerful piece in the US combined arms puzzle. For, after I redid the values, we found in testing that it is still combined arms that wins it for the US: you NEED the infantry with their TOWs and Dragons, you NEED that extra M-901, and the mortars and artillery. And as a combined arms team, the US are really powerful despite their numbers. But those numbers are their weakness and you have to compensate for that if you start taking casualties by maneuvering to minimize your exposure and maximize damage to the Soviets. The tactics will be different but I hope you like trying them as much as we have testing them!
